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Monday, October 12, 2015

American Gestapo...

Obama seeks to nationalize local police departments, placing them under federal control

by: J. D. Heyes

President Obama has been a frequent critic of local police, especially following racially charged incidents in which he seems to reflexively defend minorities – even if they are later found by courts and juries to be guilty as charged.

As such, the Obama White House has been working covertly to "nationalize" police departments, essentially bringing all state, county and local police under the purview and control of the Justice Department and federal officials. In fact, the administration has already chosen six cities as test sites.

As reported by The New American, Obama signed an executive order last December creating the "President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing." This past May, the task force released its final report, commonly given the name, "21st Century Policing".

Of the report's many recommendations, the mainstream media – which is notoriously deferential to this president – focused primarily on greater restrictions on transfers of military equipment to local police departments. However, these new accountability rules do not explicitly reduce the flow of war machines to local police. Instead, they merely place more federal controls over local departments.

Managed program roll-out for maximum propaganda effect

In addition, TNA reported, the Obama administration rules regarding military gear were only a small component of a much wider set of recommendations issued in 21st Century Policing. An overarching theme involves the promotion of greater federal control over local law enforcement, period.

TNA further noted that the rollout of the plan is being "carefully" managed and orchestrated:

While speaking to a group of police at a carefully stage-managed event in Camden, New Jersey, the president also touted some of his other efforts to exert more control over police — officers who, in accordance with the Constitution, are supposed to serve and be accountable to local communities and the wishes of local citizens, not the mandates of the White House.

In addition, Obama touted his administration's alleged efforts to "fight crime" while striving to help local agencies improve relations between themselves and the communities they serve, as well as the promotion of "transparency." He boasted of a White House "data initiative" ostensibly designed to prod local departments into following "guidelines" on data and body cameras.

He additionally promoted federal "grants" outlined in the plan that were created to promote and fund dubious policies that are associated with "community policing strategies." The promise of federal (read: taxpayer) money is at the heart of this administration's attempts to nationalize everything from health care to policing to local water rules.

"The effort also comes just a few months after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, citing Ferguson, demanded that American police submit to 'international standards,'" TNA reported.

A task force report released in March revealed that two offices within the Department of Justice – the Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and the Office of Justice Programs – "should provide technical assistance and incentive funding to jurisdictions" that conform to the White House recommendations "in return for receiving federal funds." In addition, the task forces seeks the establishment of uniform federal standards for data collected by local departments.

Test sites

Once he had the report in hand, Obama wasted no time in pushing to get recommendations implemented.

"I'm going to be asking [then-Attorney General] Eric Holder and the Justice Department and his successor to go through all of these recommendations so that we can start implementing them," he explained. "I know one area that's going to be of great interest is whether we can expand the COPS program that in the past has been very effective, continues to be effective, but is largely underfunded.

"This is something that I'm going to stay very focused on in the months to come," he added, and that was more than just rhetoric.

Just weeks after the report was issued, the White House revealed six U.S. cities that would serve as "pilot sites" to develop and use federal guidance for local police.

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